Always Have A Choice
by crazy-wild-and-free
Summary: Sequel to Always Come Back - Elijah is awake now, but things are far from how Hayley wanted them to be. Part 2 {Hayley/Elijah}


_**Hey everyone!**_

_**This is the sequel to Always Come Back. I must warn you it's very angsty since I'm trying to go along as much as I can with the show. I hope you all enjoy this one as much as you enjoyed Always Come Back!**_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own anything associated with The Originals...I just like to play around with the characters. I only own the plot._

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><p><em>Elijah is awake now, but things are far from how Hayley wanted them to be. {HayleyElijah}_

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><p>The events of the entire day had definitely taken a toll on Hayley. She'd almost been killed by Finn, then she had to deal with unsuccessfully trying to let Jackson down easy...<em>again<em>...he just wouldn't take a hint. Everything had just exhausted her and ruined her mood, so much so that the only thing she'd said to Elijah when she walked in to the room and saw that he was awake was something about being happy to see him vertical again.

When she had spoken to him, her tone had been much harsher than she'd meant it to be. She didn't mean to sound like such a bitch, but that's how it had come out. Although, she could blame part of her tone and attitude towards him on the fact that Elijah had looked away after taking just one glance at her, well okay maybe a couple, but still. That would have made anyone feel kind of off put and in a not very happy mood. Everything just kept adding up and putting her in a worse mood than before.

In that moment, she had realized that something was off about him, she just couldn't pin point what it was exactly. All she knew was that he wasn't the same Elijah she remembered from before Esther had gotten hold of him. Hayley wanted nothing more than to figure out what was different about him. The first step in doing so was finally getting back onto good terms with him. She just wasn't exactly sure how to go about it. So she just decided to wing it, surely something would help the awkward conversation along.

That had all happened the night before, and now after getting some sleep and being in a better mood she was finally ready to fix things between her and Elijah.

Hayley walked slowly down the hallway to the study where she knew Elijah was with his brothers. Personally, she didn't see why Elijah and Klaus had let them free after everything. How could they trust them enough already to be willing to let them roam free. For all they knew, they could escape and return to their mother. Hayley didn't always agree with Elijah and Klaus, and this was definitely one of those times. But they were their brothers, so it was their decision in the end.

Hayley stopped walking once she was right by the door to the study and listened closely. She breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't hear any voices.. It was going to be a lot easier now that she didn't have to worry about awkwardly interrupting "family" talk. Despite being on separate sides, they were still family. Hayley couldn't help but find it ironic as well as slightly ironic how things were working out. She was well aware that Klaus and Elijah, Klaus mainly, were trying to get their brothers on their side...however, she wasn't dumb...she knew it was going to end up going to hell in a hand basket. But again, it wasn't her place to say.

Taking a deep breath, Hayley stepped forward and turned the corner. All four of them were already looking in her direction. Hayley looked around and noticed that they were just sitting there...and not talking...apparently, they must have been talking but then heard her coming and stopped. It was the only possibility that made sense to her.

She turned her attention quickly towards Elijah. "Can we talk, Elijah? Please?"

Without answering her, Elijah stood up and walked over to her. "We'll just be a second," he told his brothers.

Hayley frowned at the way he was acting towards her ever since he had woken up. She already knew it before, but she definitely knew it now...he was not the same Elijah as before his captivity. They hadn't been on good terms before Esther but at least he hadn't acted this cold towards her, they'd shared a few lingering looks before while on bad terms, but now...it was as if they were complete strangers.

Elijah walked past her and she turned and followed him. They ended up outside where they'd have more the most privacy to talk.

"I take it you want to fix things between us?" Elijah stated more so than asked her.

Hayley looked up, eyebrow raised. "How did you know?" she asked him.

Elijah was quite for a moment before he answered, "I heard you talking to me while I was unconscious."

Hayley's eyes widened. She blinked rapidly a few times. "You did?"

He shook his head yes. "I did, and I..." he trailed off, almost as if he wasn't sure if he should say what he was about to say.

"You what?" Hayley asked, curiously...she didn't like the look on his face, the look in his eyes.

"I want to fix things between us just as much as you do, believe me," he told her.

Hayley cringed, she knew what was coming next. "There's a but, isn't there?" she wondered, unnecessarily since she already knew the answer.

Elijah looked straight at her, and the sad look in his eyes said it all. "But, I don't know if that's the safest thing right now."

Hayley shook her head in disbelief. "What the hell happened to you?" Hayley asked before she could stop herself. "If your mother hadn't gotten hold of you, we would be fixing things right now instead of you trying to keep us from doing so."

"Hayley, I..."

Hayley cut him off. "No, Elijah! No excuses!" she exclaimed in a reprimanding tone. "You already heard me when you were in your coma so I'll just go ahead and say it again, I don't like this distance between us, Elijah. I want us to be as close as we used to be and that's the main reason why I am not going to let you distance yourself even further from me.

"It's for the best, Hayley," Elijah argued.

"Stop pushing me away, Elijah!" she yelled. "Why are you acting like this?!"

He didn't answer.

"Damn it, Elijah!" Hayley hissed. "Tell me! Why are you acting like this?!" she asked again.

"Because I don't want to hurt you!" Elijah yelled back, taking Hayley by surprise.

Hayley hadn't been expecting him to yell at her like that. If she remembered correctly, the only other time he'd done that was a while back at that meeting that he hadn't invited her to.

"Hurt me?" Hayley asked, her voice softening. "I'm a hybrid now, Elijah," she reminded him, she never would have thought she would have to but apparently she did. "I'm not as easy to hurt as I was before."

Elijah shook his head, she knew by both his body language and the look on his face he wasn't going to listen to her. "I'm sorry, Hayley. I can't do this right now," he said quietly, looking anywhere but at her. "I have to go."

Before Hayley could say anything else, Elijah turned and was gone.

"_What the hell just happened?_" Hayley thought to herself, not even sure how to process what had happened.

That definitely hadn't gone anywhere near how she thought it would have.

**~AlwaysHaveAChoice~**

After processing everything and giving it some thought, Hayley was livid. There was no doubt in her mind that whatever the hell was wrong with Elijah had everything to do with something that Esther had done to him while she had him. As far as Hayley knew there was only one brother who would know something about what Esther did to Elijah.

Hayley stormed into the study and made a beeline for Finn. He wasn't expecting her so it was easy for her to take him by surprise and smash him up against the wall, holding him by his throat. The fact that he'd almost killed her the night before, and could probably try again if he wanted to didn't even register in her mind. Right now, all she cared about was figuring out what the hell was wrong with Elijah.

"What did your bitch of a mother do to him?" she asked through clinched teeth, seething mad, as she pointed her finger accusingly at him. "I know you know something!"

Klaus was up and out of his chair in an instant. "Hayley, calm down," he said to her, trying to pull her back away from Finn.

Hayley wriggled her way out of his grasp. "Whatever that bitch did to him has changed him immensely!"

"What are you talking about, Hayley?" Klaus asked, apparently not having noticed anything strange about Elijah.

Hayley backed away slightly from Finn but didn't take her eye off of him. "What? Am I the only one who has noticed something different about him?" she asked, her question directed towards Klaus despite her looking at Finn.

"No, I haven't," Klaus answered her, honestly.

"Then whatever it was must have something to do with something that could affect me," Hayley said quietly to herself, none of this was making any sense. "He said he didn't want to hurt me," Hayley recalled, this time taking her eyes off of Finn to look at Klaus.

Klaus gave her a look in return that pretty much said, "Why are you looking at me? How would I know?"

Hayley rolled her eyes, he was no help at all. She turned back to Finn and loosened her grip on his throat just slightly so that he could actually talk. "What did she do to him?" she reiterated her question from earlier.

"Why don't you ask him?" Finn replied, seeming uninterested in dealing with her at all.

"I already did," Hayley spat at him.

"Then maybe he doesn't want you to know," Finn said with a smile that she wanted to slap off of his face.

Hayley scoffed and did exactly what she wanted to, she slapped that damn smile right off his face. "Elijah and I don't keep things from each other!" she exclaimed, glaring at him.

"Apparently you do," Finn replied, obviously not taking anything she was doing or saying seriously.

To prove to him that she wasn't screwing around, Hayley pulled his head away from the wall and then slammed him back against it as hard as she could without knocking him out. She could hear Kol snicker from the corner and could have sworn that even Klaus had chuckled as she pretty much manhandled Finn.

"I'm not playing games with you. Don't you lie to me again," Hayley hissed at him. "Tell me everything you know," she demanded. "Or next time, I'm slamming your head harder and you might not wake up again for a long time...if ever."

Finn shook his head. "Like I said, I don't know what she did to him."

Hayley pulled his head away from the wall again.

"Wait!" he exclaimed, obviously realizing that answering her was the smartest option. "She was trying to persuade him to take her deal and he wouldn't. Then he told her that she wouldn't break him and she took it as a challenge, which resulted in her putting him in that sleep trance. She had a reason for it, she said he'd see things her way once he woke up," Finn told her. "That's honestly all I know."

Hayley wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. "How do I know you're telling the truth? How do I know you don't know more?"

"Hayley, I think I may know something that could help," Klaus said, reminding her that he was still in the room.

That was music to her ears, Hayley grabbed Finn and threw him to the other side of the room where he hit the wall with a loud thud. With him on the other side of the room, Hayley was able to keep an eye on him and look at Klaus at the same time.

"What do you know?" Hayley asked him, a hint of hopefulness in her tone of voice.

"When I went into his mind to coax him into waking up, I ended up in a dream like world. His younger self was there...it was like he was living within a flashback," Klaus recalled.

Hayley's eyes widened when something clicked in her brain. "She made him relive his past...bad parts that would make him possibly see things her way."

Klaus shook his head. "That's my guess," Klaus said, agreeing with her.

"He's obviously still reliving those flashbacks in his mind," Hayley spoke out loud, not really to anyone particular. "Since he won't tell me what's going on, I need to get him to let his guard down and tap into his mind."

Klaus gave her a look that she couldn't quite read. "Good luck with that."

"What?" Hayley asked, confused.

"The only time his guard is down is when he's sleeping, but he's not in a very sleepy mood right now. He's been up since he woke up last night and I wouldn't bet on him going back to sleep in the next couple of days," Klaus explained.

Hayley sighed a frustrated sigh. "How else am I to get into his mind then?" she asked incredulously.

"Unfortunately, I can't help you with that," Klaus answered, shrugging his shoulders.

"Damn it!" Hayley exclaimed under her breath. "What am I going to do now?"

She thought of as many ideas as she could for a minute or two before one idea stood out from all of the rest.

Hayley smiled. "I've got it!" she exclaimed just before she practically sprinted out of the room.

**~AlwaysHaveAChoice~**

Hayley had originally planned to go look for Elijah, but decided against it at the last minute. She realized that Elijah would need time alone and that he'd come back when he was ready. Well, that and also Hayley didn't want to be the one to run after him. He was the one pushing her away, so he'd have to come to her. Alright, that was a lie. She'd go to him but only when he was near by. She wasn't going to run after him, that just wasn't something she did. But she would go to him as long as she knew where he was.

It was much later that night when Elijah finally returned to the compound. Hayley was lounging in the study, something that she didn't get the chance to do often...if at all, when she heard him come in. She closed the magazine she had been skimming through and listened closely. She heard him come up the stairs, and his footsteps retreated down the hall in the direction of his bedroom.

Hayley waited a couple of minutes before she jumped up from the couch and made her way to his room. She paused momentarily before turning the corner and stepping inside. Elijah was standing in front of his mirror, just staring...it was like he was in a trance, she had a gut feeling that he was currently reliving those flashbacks again.

She suddenly began to feel bad because of what she had planned. It would be an invasion of his privacy, no doubt, but she needed to know what Esther made him relive...it was the only way to know how to help him. If she waited for him to tell her, which could very well be never, then she feared that the Elijah she'd come to know and love would never be able to return.

Hayley took a deep breath before walking towards him. She came up behind him, but he didn't budge an inch. Without a word, Hayley reached her hand out and laid it on his shoulder. He snapped out of his trance and immediately spun around towards her. They locked eyes for a moment, and Hayley felt like they were back to normal again. But that feeling didn't last but a few seconds.

While the flashbacks were still clear in Elijah's mind, Hayley moved forward with her plan. She grabbed his face in her hands, pulled him towards her, and kissed him. Her plan was a success, his guards were down. The moment she entered his mind, she was bombarded by flashes of Elijah and a girl who she guessed was Tatia. The flashes were violent and shocking, and Hayley couldn't believe was she was witnessing.

Hayley wasn't sure whether she jumped back away from him or if Elijah pushed her away from him, but in the next second Hayley was back to reality. She and Elijah once again locked eyes, the look in Elijah's almost made her want to cry. He looked truly remorseful and deeply hurt by what happened, and she very much felt the same...just for slightly different reasons. She really felt bad now about breaking into his mind.

"I'm so sorry, Elijah," Hayley apologized, truly meaning it. "But it was the only way!"

Elijah broke eye contact and brushed past her. "You shouldn't have done that," Elijah said quietly.

"I needed to know," Hayley replied. "I can't try to help you if I don't know."

Elijah spun back around to face her. "You should have asked," he spat at her, but there was nothing harsh in his tone.

Hayley sighed as she shook her head slightly. "Would you have really let me in?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"No," he answered honestly.

"I just want to help, Elijah," Hayley told him, taking a step towards him. "Please, let me help you."

"You can't help me, Hayley," he said, his voice shaking.

Hayley frowned, rolling her eyes. "Don't give me that, Elijah!" she exclaimed, making sure he could tell she wasn't giving up easily by the tone of her voice.

Elijah turned his head away from her.

"No, no, not happening, Elijah," Hayley told him, reaching her hands out to cup his face and turn his head back to her.

Elijah reached up and wrapped his hands around Hayley's wrists, pulling her hands away from him. "I'm sorry, Hayley, but it's too dangerous. I can't allow myself to put you in..." Elijah let the words trail off as he turned to leave the room, he was trying to avoid letting her in still and she was not happy about it.

Hayley shook her head in disbelief and called after him, "Seriously, Elijah?! Don't you dare leave! Not like this! Not again!"

Her words didn't seem to have any power over him at the moment.

She spoke up again, and this time she was practically pleading with him to not walk away like this...not like this, not again. "Please, Elijah! Just stop walking away and look at me."

Hayley's words still seemed powerless as she ran to the door and stood outside of it watching Elijah's figure retreating down the hallway, getting smaller and smaller with each step. Nothing she was saying seemed to be working so she tried one last time, third time's a charm...or at least she hoped it was. This time she was done with trying to calmly get through to him. If raising her voice was what she needed to do, then she'd do it.

"Damn it! This is ridiculous, Elijah!" Hayley hissed through clenched teeth. "What happened to I will always have a choice?!"

Hayley smiled to herself when she finally got a rouse out of Elijah.

He stopped walking and turned around, using his vamp speed to come face to face with her only seconds later. "You _will_ always have a choice," Elijah assured her.

Hayley glared at him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Oh, really?" she asked, in that sassy tone of hers that she often used with him when she was trying to hide her pain. "Because it sure as hell seems like you're trying to make the choice for me."

Elijah didn't have anything to say to that, he knew she was right.

"You have always said that I have a choice," she reminded him once more. "And, I choose you!" she exclaimed, with no doubt at all in her mind. "Even when you're pushing me away and I'm pissed off at you and acting sassy towards you because of it, I choose you! No matter what happens, or whether we are on good terms or bad terms..._I choose you_!"

It was very surprising to Hayley how in the heat of the moment words could come pouring out. She wasn't used to being this open, but hey if the shoe fits...

"I choose you in every shape, size, form, personality...you name it...I still choose and I always will choose you!" Hayley was pouring her heart out to him, and God she hoped he wouldn't just step on it and crush it.

She knew bringing up their feelings for each other was a low blow during this fight, but she was practically grasping at straws now.

This was her last attempt at getting through to him, she didn't know what she'd do if she failed. "If you let me go now then not only are you letting a really good thing go, but you are also surrendering to your bitch of a mother!"

Hayley took a step forward and grabbed his hand. "Don't let her win," she said quietly, realizing to her shock that pouring her heart out to a conscious Elijah wasn't actually as hard as she thought it'd be. "Don't let her ruin this for you...for me."

She looked up and was relieved to see Elijah looking back at her. The look in his eyes was different than it had been moments before. Hayley felt a little bit of excitement course through her, she had a strong feeling that she was finally getting through to him. "Don't let her ruin us, Elijah," Hayley whispered to him.

Another few moments of silence passed between them.

When Elijah still didn't say anything in that amount of time, Hayley decided to continue trying to get through to him.

"You, too, will always have a choice, Elijah," she told him, reiterating his words from a few months before. "What's it going to be? Are you going to walk away and give up everything...me, us? Or are you going to fight for me, for us?"

What happened next was literally something out of Hayley's nightmares.

"I'm sorry, Hayley, but you saw what happened to Tatia..." he trailed off, shaking his head with a look of despair on his face. "I can't imagine what I'd do if I were to hurt you in any way," he confessed.

"I'm not human, Elijah. You can't hurt me enough to have it end like that," Hayley tried to reason with him.

Elijah shook his head. "I'm sorry, Hayley," he apologized again. "I have to go," Elijah spoke so quiet that if she didn't have wolf/vampire hearing she wouldn't have heard him say anything.

Hayley immediately felt as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest, it might as well have been.

"Elijah," she said, not sure of what else other than his name to say.

Elijah gave her one last look, a look that for the life of her she couldn't read, and turned and walked out of the room.

This time Hayley was too shocked and in too much pain to try to stop him from walking away from everything.

"_Damn him_!" Hayley thought to herself. "_That's it, I can't do this anymore_!"

She had once again put herself out there, only to be rejected yet again, but that definitely wasn't going to happen again...not while Elijah was like this. There was just so much rejection one could take before they stopped trying altogether. Maybe if Elijah was the same Elijah as before...well, actually if that were the case they wouldn't even be in this situation.

Hayley wanted so badly to fix things between her and Elijah, but he wasn't helping at all. It was going to take more than just her trying to fix things. Unless Elijah stopped acting the way he was soon...there would be no way things would ever be patched up between them. At this point, Hayley wasn't even sure if there was any way to salvage and fix whatever was left of her and Elijah's old relationship...if there was even anything left of it at all.

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><p><em><strong>There you all have it! I know, I know...it's a sorta cliff hanger, that's just how it turned out. I did warn that it would be a bit angsty, too. Let me know what you thought. Review, please?<strong>_

_**I think there's going to be at least one more part to this series of one-shots. It will most likely depend on what happens during next weeks episode.**_

_**Until next time!**_


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